Today, September 8th, is pitch madness day over at Twitter. I’ll be pitching. After months of being in my writers cave, my story #TheGlassChamber is in the freelance-editor stage and almost ready to go. If you’re a friend stop by. Don’t retweet or favorite my tweet, but do let me know what you think in a reply or dm. I’d love to have your feedback.

(Update: Thanks to Mary Rowen for giving me feedback on my three-line pitch. Here is the much improved version)

Title: The Glass Chamber
Genre: YA Futuristic Romance (Solarpunk)
Length: 100,000 words
Author: Sheryl KaleoIn a future where every affliction except death has a cure, and lives span centuries rather than decades, the dead and their burial chambers may be pre-sold as collectibles to the highest bidder. Astrid’s artist grandfather just wants a few more months to finish his homage to her grandmother. To save him from prematurely gathering dust on someone’s shelf, Astrid will solve a cold case murder and lose her heart to a cagey street performer who’s harboring secrets about his best friend’s death.

You’re sitting through the credits, waiting, waiting, waiting for that little piece of film, anticipation high. Will it be a clip for the next movie? Or an inside joke. Sometimes you wait, while people start to leave around you, and at first you think ha, they’re not on the in. Or you wonder if this time you’ll be left high and dry.

Then the clip shows, and it’s the perfect after dinner treat to a great meal. Or maybe it’s more confusing than the movie itself. (How many of us knew who Thanos was after the first Thor movie?) Sometimes the clip can feel like a gratuitous ad. Sometimes the clip can spark more conversation than the actual movie itself.

What term evokes the same anticipation as Easter Egg?

But what do you call the darn thing? Jared Ficiur of moviepilot.com calls it an “end of credit scene” in this this post, where he lists Every Marvel End Credit Scene.

Bryan Coda of Yahoo Movies calls it the “post-credits coda” in this article, where he talks about the X-Men clip at the end of Spiderman 2. Which makes sense, considering that coda is defined on Google search as “The concluding passage of a piece of movement, typically forming an addition to the basic structure.”

But while end-credits coda and end of credit scene are both accurate, neither terms captures that delicious zest that can be gained by a delicious after-film treat.

Neither term evokes the same anticipation and fun that the term Easter Egg does in reference to the little hidden gems you have to search for in a movie. As George Wales says here in this post on gamesradar.comi, “The only thing better than enjoying an old favorite is catching a new tidbit the second (or third or fourth or fifth) time around.” A Fortune Cookie

So we in the Kaleo clan have taken to calling them cookies, short for fortune cookies. (Or rather Mama-Kaleo has taken to calling them fortune cookies, and Rug-Rat Kaleos after much eye-rolling refer to them–when all else fails–as cookies.) Like a fortune cookie you never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes they’re a gem–a treat you tuck away in your pocket. Sometimes they’re wise. Sometimes they’re worth a laugh or two. Sometimes they’re so lame they make you want to open another one to get rid of the bad after-taste. There are even the dud ones that are perfect in their imperfection. Papa-Kaleo’s all time favorite cookie–the one he can’t help but laugh out loud when he says it or hears it–wasn’t een one he found. It was from the book Big Nate by Lincoln Pierce: “An unlit candle frightens no monkey.”

The way Papa-Kaleo feels about that fortune is the way I feel about my all-time favorite clip. It had no meaning. It was not a commercial or a teaser for the next film. My favorite clip was just a moment of humanity. I’m talking about the clip at the end of the avengers movie.

A side note:Wikipedia credits The Muppet Movie (1979) as one of the earliest instances of having a post-credits scene and has a workup on other appearances here.

What do you call the thingee at the end of the movie? And what’s your favorite? And if you could add one to any non-marvel/non-disney film clip, which would you add it to?

In a few days, Alyssa K. Watson’s interview with me on Carbon Culture Review will no longer be featured, replaced by an interview with Alia Gee or Claudie Arsenault. Not sure who’s next, but I’m excited. I’m looking forward to reading the opinions of other writers on this genre. Writers, artists, innovators, philosophers, scientist–we influence each other in ways that move the whole forward. And Solarpunk is a genre that deserves to be moved, pushed, prodded, and speculated forward.

Why?

Ebook on Cambridge Press

My interests can be explained by a very misunderstood yet often quoted scientist, historian, and philosopher at MIT, Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996). He wrote a number of books; one of them The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1996) was responsible for the equally misunderstood and overused word paradigm. But in my humble opinion, what he truly should be lauded for is this idea that our language and our culture are limited by our science and our science is limited by our language and culture. To get a sense of how difficult it is to understand the depth and breadth of this sort-of ouroboros-driven concept, read Tom Horgan’s interview, What Thomas Kuhn Really Thought About Scientific Truth in Scientific American.

Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Said another way, scientifically we get stuck in our own mind (or cultural) speak and can’t see far enough to move in new directions beyond what we know, until somehow we do and then everything changes including our mind speak.

Dick Tracey Artwork by Johnny Kwan. Click on link to purchase a copy.

However, I believe art, particularly speculative fiction, is the exception limited only by our imagination and our perceived needs. And those needs are ever expanding, which sparks innovation, which feeds on ideas, which is the brainchild of speculative fiction. As a result, science fiction has this ability to push us culturally and scientifically. Think of how many innovations we take for granted that were first encountered in speculative fiction, and then think of how many of us are waiting for that opportunity to speak into our watches and look at the faces of our loved ones like a certain square-jawed detective, who first showed up in our culture-speak eighty-four years ago. Are we on the verge of having Dick Tracy watches? Apple certainly banked on it by securing the trademark to the iWatch.

So why Solarpunk?

In the Carbon Culture interview, I mention the dominant culture-speak that “right now, post-apocalyptic thinking seems to have become the de rigueur mindset—nuclear war is inevitable, we’re going to run out of resources, we’re killing all life on earth. It’s as though we can’t see past our own terrible end.”

Mayan Artifact

If you recall, leading up to the idea that the world is going to end badly, there was this thing that was supposed to happen in 2012. Somewhere someone mentioned the Mayan calendar ended on December 21, 2012. I imagine, despite archeologists telling us differently, someone else then speculated about the coming end of time. And from there someone speculate the world was going to end. (I’d love to know the details of how this all came about–if you know how, please do leave a note in the comments.) But the idea didn’t grow and gain momentum until the writers of speculative fiction ran with it. Suddenly we had people across the globe preparing for the end of the world (or technology) with underground bunkers, canned foods, and gallons of water.

But we haven’t died. And the world hasn’t been destroyed by meteors. And the good things that have come out of that phase of cultural mind speak is that scientists are monitoring the skies with ideas as to how to deal with impending disasters and we–all of us, whether we believe in global warming or not–are aware of the consequences of all sorts of pollution, even light pollution.

But that’s because Cracked.com is humor, and while humor can be the wind beneath our collective wings, speculative fiction is the muscle and brawn that makes us fly. Science fiction excels at changing our mind speak because anything we see or read becomes real to us. And that’s where solarpunk can help. We can convert to clean power. We can rely on clean resources. We can make a clean future for ourselves and our progeny.

This is why we need more artists, more writers, more innovators to envision how and where and with what do we transition this world of ours into positive realism, as first coined on the tumbler group. This is why if you love science fiction, I hope you’ll consider writing, reading, and imagining in the solarpunk genre.

It’s a gift, you see, one where we can make a difference for the world. But please note–as a writer, I’m not suggesting we write “Happy, Happy–Joy, Joy” stories. When we’ve fixed the world, so to speak, then we’ll have the real problem at hand—fixing ourselves. Which is what Solarpunk as a genre gives us the opportunity to do – focus the microscope on the true nature of our problems–ourselves.

Last week I posed the question “#Solarpunk what would you do with www.solarpunk.COM and www.solarpunk.ORG? To vote/signup visit www.sherylkaleo.com/solarpunk/. If you haven’t voted on solarpunk.org and solarpunk.com, please do, and feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.

DONOR (Shreya’s Chronicles Book 1) 2013 by Sheryl Kaleo

In 2013, I self-published my novel Donoron Kobo, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Author page, and All Romance eBooks.Donoris about a sixteen-year-old girl who discovers that everything she ever knew about her life is a lie. Donor chronicles Shreya’s journey from an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl living in upstate Louisiana to a fugitive on the run from the law, the unlawful, and those beyond any natural laws known to Humankind. For a peek at the series back cover click blurb.

The difference between solarpunk the genre and solarpunk the movement is an idealistic asthetic. Personally, I believe solarpunk the movement should strive for the best—our cultural goal should be to get to the point where we have bio-friently nanite technology and anti-microbial technology that works to keep our man-inhabited environments in tune with nature.

But to paraphrase Agent Smith in The Matrix—we humans tend to reject perfect human worlds as “too good to be true.” And I would add, especially in our literature and media. We want to immerse ourselves in the fantastic, yes. But first it has to be realistic. The gritty realism of dirty gears and erupting steam is what made the Millenium Falcon and the Nostromo real. Gone are the days of shiny, silver spacesuits as representing advanced technology. Superman in pretty blue and red spandex? Not so realistic. Superman in textured dark blue kevlar-looking fabric? That’s alien technology that makes sense.

Superman Returns, 2006

Man of Steel, 2013

But it’s not just that we know now that a honeycomb construct makes for greater tensile strength than a shiny, scratchable sheet of metal. I think what Stephan was also referring to is that every improvement we make has consequences, and those consequences always result in a mess. For example, our first forays into using silver as a self-cleaning surface has yielded destructive side-effects in our environment. Then there are the aspects of what makes us human. How many of us have seen a perfectly clean house and thought that looks nothing like my house. Do we want that perfectly-clean-space-age-glass-everywhere house? Sure. Do we know that the minute it’s ours we’re going to have books and dirty dishes in the sink? Absolutely.

Police Bot, Donor 2013, Sheryl Kaleo

In Donor, my heroine sees a baseball-sized cleaning bot zap a pigeon that has swooped down to eat a piece of bread in Rockefeller Center. She’s afraid of dropping anything for fear of losing her hand in the same way. And while the New York City of the future is super-clean of litter and fuel emissions, there’s still plenty of other types of pollutants.

Wikipedia defines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_neurosis as it was originally applied by Freud as “a range of disorders, including perversion, depression, and psychosis. In the 1920s, however, he came to single out “illnesses which are based on a conflict between the ego and superego.”

Wesley Snipes in Demolition Man, 1993

When I first wrote my working definition and included the phrase “coupled with a radical change in the social order symptomatic of narcissistic neurosis”, I had in mind the thought that the classic conflict in my solarpunk worlds is man versus man and/or man versus self. Most especially where narcissism breeds this belief of “we know best” which is at the heart of most political systems. Then coupled with the psychotic break that occurs in our inability to come to terms with our human frailties. We humans have very high ideals—oftentimes subjective, opinionated, rigid ideals—and very deep flaws.

But here’s what I’m seeing, the problem with using a word that has it’s own strong meaning in combination with another word that is intended to give it a different nuanced definition, is that original word can overshadow the intent of the phrase. Such is the case with the word narcissism. Obviously a better phrase is needed than narcissistic neurosis. Which brings me back to my original phrase – man in harmony with his environment but in disharmony with himself. Perhaps the definition needs to stop there? Or perhaps stopping there is too ambiguous? Too soon to tell.

The wonderful thing about being at the forefront of a genre and having this dialogue is that there is plenty of room to shape and morph the definition. As such, I’m sure that my definition will evolve with feedback.

Although @Threadbare was speaking more to the issue of narcissim versus utopian constructs like the one in LeGuin’s novel, this question made me pause and consider…Does solarpunk automatically mean the society has to utopian? Or is there room for dystopian societies?

Just because the world is clean and mankind is in harmony with his environment, does that preclude a utopian society? In the examples in the interview, Zardoz, 1974 could definitely be taken for a utopian society. But then again, the government in Demolition Man,1993 is totalitarian and dystopian.

I guess to answer @Threadbare, I would say that solarpunk to me is man in harmony with nature and the environment, but in disharmony with himself. Whether this disharmony creates conflict in the form of man-versus-man as is the case with political systems, or man-versus-self as is the case with our inability to accept the consequences of being human, this phrase leaves room for both.

Last week I posed the question “#Solarpunk what would you do with www.solarpunk.COM and www.solarpunk.ORG? To vote/signup visit www.sherylkaleo.com/solarpunk/. If you haven’t voted on solarpunk.org and solarpunk.com, please go

DONOR (Shreya’s Chronicles Book 1) 2013 by Sheryl Kaleo

In 2013, I self-published my novel Donoron Kobo, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Author page, and All Romance eBooks.Donoris about a sixteen-year-old girl who discovers that everything she ever knew about her life is a lie. Donor chronicles Shreya’s journey from an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl living in upstate Louisiana to a fugitive on the run from the law, the unlawful, and those beyond any natural laws known to Humankind. For a peek at the series back cover click blurb.

Last week I posed the question “#Solarpunk what would you do with www.solarpunk.COM and www.solarpunk.ORG? To vote/signup visit www.sherylkaleo.com/solarpunk/.

That poll is still ongoing. There is already a thriving community on http://solarpunks.tumblr.com where ideas, writings, and images are being shared. And the goal is to add to that community in a way that doesn’t supersede what has come before.

I suggested an ezine for solarpunk.COM in the hopes that such a format could grow to become a magazine that would then reach the hands of a larger audience. I envisioned a collection of informative, scientific, and artistic articles that would bring to its audience the goals and realities of positive futurism. I suggested a bulletin board for solarpunk.ORG with the idea that such a format could become a warehouse for scientific facts and innovations, a discussion board for strategies and goals, and a platform where we could share our creative endeavors.

In my mind, the ultimate goal would be for solarpunk.com to hold a contest each year showcasing and rewarding the best, the brightest, and most innovative of scientific endeavors and artistic realizations. And the ultimate goal for solarpunk.org would be for that site to become a resource for us so we can all make realistic changes in our lives and a resource for teachers and students that would encourage discussions and shape future science fairs to come.

But these are just my thoughts. And solarpunk is above all about community. It’s for those of us who are fed up and for those of us who believe this is achievable now and in the future. So while I can voice my opinion here on this blog, I also have to honor yours in the comments. For example, Leo said he’d like to see solarpunk.COM become an interactive blog and solarpunk.ORG become “more of an information hub with real life situations and things we can do now to get closer to an optimistic future similar to solarpunk like petitions, DIY tech, informational articles related to topics in solarpunk.” Like Leo, I hope more of you will share you thoughts and ideas, as this poll continues. Ultimately, none of this is achievable without you. To vote, signup, and share your thoughts, visit www.sherylkaleo.com/solarpunk/.

Who am I?

I’ve been writing in the solarpunk genre since 2004. (To read about how I became a solarpunk writer read here.) At the time there didn’t seem to be much interest in it, but I kept writing anyway because I loved the worlds, and I figured sooner or later there had to be other people who loved it, too.

In 2013, I self-published my novel Donoron Kobo, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Author page, and All Romance eBooks.Donoris about a sixteen-year-old girl who discovers that everything she ever knew about her life is a lie. Donor chronicles Shreya’s journey from an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl living in upstate Louisiana to a fugitive on the run from the law, the unlawful, and those beyond any natural laws known to Humankind. For a peek at the series back cover click blurb.

The goal is to create easy to use and expandable communities for sharing ideas and ideals in the solarpunk genre.

Who am I?

I’ve been writing in the solarpunk genre since 2004. (To read about how I became a solarpunk writer read here.) At the time there didn’t seem to be much interest in it, but I kept writing anyway because I loved the worlds, and I figured sooner or later there had to be other people who loved it, too.

Being a typical writer I popped my head up out of my writing cave every so often to test the ethers. But mostly I wrote. Then in 2006, I won a contest for my first solarpunk novel Timewalkers, about a young adult girl unable to compete in the motorcycle racing circuit, who then travels to a perfect future with cities in the sky (and racing up there, too), a perfect world where all was not as it seems. The win was a great boost, but I realized I had much to learn about the writing craft, so I went back to my cave.

Then in 2011, I finalled in the YA category of the RWA Golden Heart ® with my third solarpunk novel. And in 2013, I self-published my novel Donoron Kobo, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Author page, and All Romance eBooks.Donoris about a sixteen-year-old girl who discovers that everything she ever knew about her life is a lie. Donor chronicles Shreya’s journey from an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl living in upstate Louisiana to a fugitive on the run from the law, the unlawful, and those beyond any natural laws known to Humankind. For a peek at the series back cover click blurb.

On April 1st, 2015, Carbon Culture Review will be publishing an interview with me by Alyssa Watson in which I discuss some of the worldbuilding rules and the definitions I used in my novel Donor. I hope you’ll take the time to stop by and comment.

My Novel A Not So Sleeping Beauty finalled in the North Texas RWA Great Expectations Contest. The GE is open to unpublished manuscripts by authors who have never published or contracted for the genre they’re entering.

A Not So Sleeping Beauty is a New Adult novel, a genre I’m just learning about. Since this is a new genre for me and a comedy, I’m not sure how I’ll do. But it was a lot of fun to write.